Fred Astaire beat time. He beat time with his feet and hands; with canes, umbrellas and hat-stands; on pianos, tables,

stairs,

floors and ceilings. Twenty-four years after his death on 22 June 1987 he continues to live on in film.

Though he once said that 'reminiscing is for the birds', I wanted to pay homage to Mr Astaire by drawing him dancing to Needle in a Haystack from the 1934 film The Gay Divorcee. This blithe, lithe, little ditty is a tapping, spinning, arm-waving gem and my drawn animation of the dance will go on show in Berlin's 129 Gallery from the 30th September 2011 as part of a new exhibition called Sichtbarkeit. Find the gallery at Emser Straße 129, Berlin or see the animation here

Rupert Blanchard's first chair design book "will be released during the London design festival 2011, focusing on an incomplete look at his collection of tubular steel 'pel' chairs to accompany an exhibition of selected exhibits from his chair collection at Leila's Cafe in Calvert Avenue, Shoreditch, where you get a chance to read the book, try out a chair while enjoying a drink and something to eat; the perfect place for a design festival pit-stop..." there's a lovely photo-animation of some of the chairs on his blog too - play my drawn animation above

The 100 prints from my study of a peacock walking will be exhibited at 129 Gallery in Berlin from 11th August until 11th September 2011 as part of the Multiplicity exhibition. Each print is available to buy - please contact 129 Gallery for more information 129gallery@gmail.com

The 100 13 cm x 10.5 cm prints are hand printed onto my favourite carbonless receipt paper. I drew the peacock from the biopic Frida, 2002 and had to draw the peacock 20 times so that it carried through to all 100 sheets of carbonless paper. Each time I drew it it was slightly different and all 100 sheets animate the peacock in motion when played in sequence (as seen above).

The piece was inspired by Pervinder and Richard Khaira-Creswell's wedding on 3rd July 2011- I had a lovely day thank you for inviting me.

I'm very sad to see Fox & Co. on London Wall has closed after 143 years trading. As someone who owns over 50 umbrellas I always fancied going in there one day and buying a bespoke umbrella. The film above is drawn from Singin' in the Rain, 1952 and shows Gene Kelly's umbrella which he throws into the air and catches againwhilst singing and dancing in the milky rain.